Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA
Practice report

Mugello MotoGP: Iannone dominates opening practice

Suzuki rider Andrea Iannone dominated the opening practice session for MotoGP's Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, beating Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro by over half a second.

Andrea Iannone, Team Suzuki MotoGP

Andrea Iannone, Team Suzuki MotoGP

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Iannone, who confirmed on Thursday he will leave Suzuki at the end of the 2018 season, left it until the final 30 seconds of the 45-minute Friday morning session to move to the top of the times, posting a best lap of 1m47.253s.

That was 0.550s up on Pirro, making his first of three planned starts on a third factory Ducati this year, who led the timesheets for the bulk of the running and ended up second.

Andrea Dovizioso made it a Ducati 1-2 for most of the way with a lap 0.192s slower than Pirro, which proved good enough for third in the final reckoning, 0.708s down on former teammate Iannone.

Yamaha's Maverick Vinales crashed at the first corner, San Donato, on his very first flying lap, but was able to recover to set the fourth-quickest time, fractionally slower than Dovizioso.

Setting identical times were Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller and championship leader Marc Marquez on the best of the Hondas, both recording a 1m48.035s to take fifth and sixth places.

Rookie Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS Honda) was an impressive seventh, less than two tenths shy of Marquez and 0.007s ahead of his mentor Valentino Rossi on the second works Yamaha.

Jorge Lorenzo (Ducati) was a further thousandth of a second behind in ninth, while Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) completed a top 10 split by a little under a second.

Danilo Petrucci, who is vying to replace Lorenzo at the factory Ducati team next year, had a subdued start to his home race weekend in 13th place, making him the slowest of the four GP18 riders.

Dani Pedrosa likewise endured a tough opening session on the second works Honda that left him 17th.

Thomas Luthi (Marc VDS Honda) was the only other crasher besides Vinales of a relatively incident-free session, losing the front end at the downhill Scarperia right-hander at the halfway point.

Practice results:

Pos.#RiderBikeTimeGap
1 29 italy Andrea Iannone  Suzuki 1'47.253  
2 51 italy Michele Pirro  Ducati 1'47.803 0.550
3 4 italy Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati 1'47.961 0.708
4 25 spain Maverick Viñales  Yamaha 1'47.995 0.742
5 43 australia Jack Miller  Ducati 1'48.035 0.782
6 93 spain Marc Marquez  Honda 1'48.035 0.782
7 21 italy Franco Morbidelli  Honda 1'48.211 0.958
8 46 italy Valentino Rossi  Yamaha 1'48.218 0.965
9 99 spain Jorge Lorenzo  Ducati 1'48.219 0.966
10 35 united_kingdom Cal Crutchlow  Honda 1'48.229 0.976
11 5 france Johann Zarco  Yamaha 1'48.272 1.019
12 42 spain Alex Rins  Suzuki 1'48.274 1.021
13 9 italy Danilo Petrucci  Ducati 1'48.304 1.051
14 41 spain Aleix Espargaro  Aprilia 1'48.384 1.131
15 44 spain Pol Espargaro  KTM 1'48.570 1.317
16 17 czech_republic Karel Abraham  Ducati 1'48.573 1.320
17 26 spain Dani Pedrosa  Honda 1'48.669 1.416
18 30 japan Takaaki Nakagami  Honda 1'48.878 1.625
19 19 spain Alvaro Bautista  Ducati 1'48.920 1.667
20 38 united_kingdom Bradley Smith  KTM 1'49.086 1.833
21 53 spain Tito Rabat  Ducati 1'49.181 1.928
22 12 switzerland Thomas Luthi  Honda 1'49.460 2.207
23 45 united_kingdom Scott Redding  Aprilia 1'49.499 2.246
24 55 malaysia Hafizh Syahrin  Yamaha 1'49.650 2.397
25 10 belgium Xavier Simeon  Ducati 1'50.315 3.062

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Weekend preview (June 1-3): MotoGP and Daruvala
Next article Rossi: Lorenzo returning to Yamaha would be 'motivating'

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

USA